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It is a curious business being an international rugby player in Italy, muses Mauro Bergamasco. "People watch the matches on television but people in the bank where my mother works don't even know what rugby is. I can make a living at it, but not everyone in the clubs can say the same."

If his talent lay in football or cycling - the particular strength of Treviso, where he plays for the Benetton team - Bergamasco would already have been placed on a pedestal in the Italian way. But he has no regrets.

"Rugby is a sport which can capture people's imagination, and being in the Six Nations has changed everything. I know people who know nothing about it who watch the games. We just have to be patient. It's growing."

If Bergamasco continues to develop as he has since making his debut against the Netherlands in 1998 at the age of 19 he will play a key part in that process of growth. In last year's championship the flanker showed his speed and skill with one of the tries of the tournament against Scotland, a show of the ball to Gregor Townsend and a 60-metre sprint with the Scottish cover in hot pursuit.

Almost as important in terms of raising his sport's profile at home, he has what the Italians call "bella figura " - he looks good and talks well. But for all the cherubic curls, tactile manner and ready smile, he has the core of steel you might expect from a man who numbers Sean Fitzpatrick, Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio among his heroes.

When Bergamasco left the Padua club for Treviso this year his younger brother Mirko - who will be on the bench this afternoon - stayed behind, and when Mauro came back for the Italian league meeting between the two clubs, who are as well disposed to each other as Arsenal are to Tottenham Hotspur, he apparently wasted no time in putting junior in his place with a massive hit.

Bergamasco is fast as well. He has played at wing, and this season turned out for Treviso at centre when his club were hit by injuries, until the Italian coach Brad Johnstone asked for him to move back to No7. "I didn't mind," says Bergamasco. "Today you have to cover various roles around the pitch. It was important to give it a go. I prefer back row, though. You have things in common with a centre but you are more free to move around."

Much has been said and written about his try against Scotland, but all Bergamasco wants to say about it is: "I would like another one so that people will talk about that." He has already produced something similar in the Italian Super-10 this term, against Calvisano: a charge-down in his own 22 kicked on and run down to the opposition try-line.

But the fact that the Scotland try was probably the best thing Italy could take from the 2001 Six Nations sums up Bergamasco's and his country's current problem. So much endeavour but crumbs in reward. One win in 10 championship outings. Ten tries shipped against England. A team with some fine individual talents but showing little sign of cohesion, consistency or strength in depth.

Bergamasco, however, is optimistic about Italy's third Six Nations. "Everyone's been talking negatively about the Six Nations for several months after our poor results in Europe. I don't think it's so bad, I think there's another reality. It's a very young team, with some new staff like John Kirwan, and it needs to grow. Italy needs to think about being in the top 10 in the world, about climbing the ladder, about winning rather than just doing well. We can't be arrogant and say we're going to win everything, but we have to believe in ourselves."

The Italians' biggest weakness last year was their tendency to flag mentally and physically in the second half, the result, says Bergamasco, of the low intensity level of the Italian league. This year the league's switch to a Super-10 type format has changed this. "Perhaps we also lacked the ability to believe in ourselves to the very end. It's a question of faith. Anglo-Saxon teams have a different attitude which I think comes from many years' experience."

The arrival of Johnstone's fellow former All Black Kirwan, he feels, has already given Italy a new dimension. "He looks at the opposition's game in a different way. We use the video a lot more. We examine them more scientifically. Before, our knowledge of the opposition was only so deep. Now it's 100%."

For all their two wooden spoons out of two, Bergamasco believes Italian rugby has a bright future. "In Italy when we realise we are behind we want to hurry. We need patience. There's more stability now, but the results haven't come. We have to work for certain objectives, wait for the fruit to grow. It's a matter of choosing a path and sticking to it."

Bergamasco chose his own path early on: he fell for the sport at the age of five, when his father, the international flanker Arturo, took him to watch some under-11s training. He is equally clear about his next goals: a place at an English Premiership club after next year's World Cup - "I was asked three years ago, but wasn't mature enough" - and eventually the Italian captaincy.

He is already a steadfast defender of his country on and off the rugby pitch. Asked how the Italian rugbisti can turn it around, he gives a three-word answer such as a priest might give an anxious novice: " Fiducia e pazienza " - "faith and patience". Keep the former, have the latter. Italy will need both qualities in abundance in the next couple of months, but they will also need this man to be at his most electric.